Where to for ABC Learning?
There are lots of rumours that ABC Learning is about to go broke and if that happens it will be a record because the company claims to have net assets of $2.23 billion, yet its market capitalisation is only $296 million. Clearly, the market believes a $2 billion write-down is coming but if ABC Learning goes under, it will win the dubious prize of having the strongest balance sheet on paper of any collapsed company in Australian history. No wonder there’s a big battle going on with new auditor Brian Long, the Ernst & Young partner who signed off on AMP’s claimed $18 billion in net assets back in 2003, when the market was valuing the business at about $6 billion. The following list tracks the claimed net assets of companies which collapsed and names the auditor involved: Claimed assets of companies at time of collapse Pasminco: declared a $23 million net profit for 1999-00 and then collapsed whilst claiming to have net assets of $1.5 billion. Alan Beckett from Ernst & Young signed the ac
